Hans Beunk wrote me his memories flying this DH Dove as TJ-ACE (ex/ PH-MAD, purchased from Martinair) for Cameroon Air Transport.

Read MORE...

The photo shows former PH-MAD at a landingstrip of Bamenda, with Hans Beunk in front of the aircraft.

Craig Smith sent me this from the desert State in the US...

Craig wrote when he sent me this image on 14Jun10:
"I've attached a shot of a C-54E we found at Wendover Historic Airfield, at the Utah/Nevada line on June 9th, just last week. The status on FAA website registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry indicates 'questionable'...
Hope it's got a few hours left in it, fighting those fires."

"Btw, the old C-119 was still at Battle Mountain on that the same day. The TV-2/T-33 was moved to Fort Garland, Colorado a couple of years ago, but I don't know where the F-4 or the F-86D have gone to."
Craig Smith
Sparks, NV

TBM's Tanker 65, N8502R c/n 27367 (ex/ USAF 44-9141) sees most of its contract use on the US West Coast, including Arizona and as we see Nevada.

I received an update from Del Mitchell with photos taken in Jan.2014 HERE..
By Sep.2018 I learned that N8502R was still here, but where would it go?

N8502R on airliners.net

Arjen Burghart sent me this image, 13-6-2010:

Arjen wrote: "thanks to the information on your website I now know the identity of this aircraft! Here's a photos of how YS-11 P4-YSA looks these days."
The EXIF data shows photo taken on 13Jun10.

Stef Slavujevic sent me this image in july 2011 (no date to the photo):

Stef wrote: "the restaurant has been closed a long time and the property is for sale".

A 2014 update by Paul Koopman can be found on the link mentioned earlier:
OFF-AIRPORT, LATIN AMERICAS

Lockheed Constellation ..-121 and visible under the wing 'LAPSA".
Research by Ron (TAHS' referencebook on Piston Propliners) brought the following to the surface:
Lockeed C-69/L.049 RX-121 (c/n 1968)
Delivered as 43-10316 to the United States Air Force on 11May1945
Stored at Burbank,CA Oct.1945. Then to War Assets Administration, transferred 31Mar1947
Registered as N90829 for Service Airways Inc, bought 11Mar1948
Next as RX-121 to Lineas Aereos de Panama SA, 1948.
Returning to registration N90829 for Intercontinental Airways in 1949; stored that same year.
Purchase by Capital Airlines not taken up
Registered as, 4X-AKC for El Al, bought April 1951; subsequently converted to L.149
Shot down north of Petrich, on Bulgarian - Greek border on 27Jul1955.

Note: while Panama now has the HP- prefix, this used to be RX-.

MORE PHOTOS BY RON MAK ON THIS WEBSITE HERE...

N130Q started its flying career with delivery to the USAAF in 1943, as 42-68834.
On 02Nov45 it was transferred to the RFC, registered as NC86562 to Eastern Air Lines in 1946.
Then it was bought on 01Aug49 by L.B.Smith Acft Corp on 06Jun52.
Next it was reregistered as N20W since 1953, and N130Q since 1966. Total number of owners owners were 15 or 16 since Eastern A/L...
Flown by Folsoms Air Service, Greenville Mun'l & Moosehead Lake in Maine as an amphibian, it was in 2000 reported for sale, had been for a few years, asking price $ 750,000 (with Wright R.1820 engines).
Since then the floats have been removed (ca.2015). It just wasn't practical for an aircraft the size of a DC-3.

Prime video footage: www.airplanemart.com/video/00228_Douglas_DC-3_on_floats.php

UPDATE JULY 2020: "After 16 long years, The Only DC-3 in the World on Floats, N130Q, Folsom's massive seaplane of Moosehead Lake is back atop its EDO floats!
(Here) at Greenville Municipal Airport (K3B1). After all my years of research I'd never thought I'd see this. Unbelievable to witness in person towering over everything.
Word is that it is being made airworthy for a new owner in Alaska.
Been working on a book that will cover the history of the XC-47C Program evaluated in WWII as well as Greenville's iconic DC-3 on floats. Hope to have it completed this year and will post a link." ¬Jakob McKenney (FB WIX).

Roger wrote: Probably not yet common knowledge, but Douglas C-53D N49AG (c/n 11737) has its livery amended to somewhat resembling French Navy colours.
The photo was taken at La Ferte Alais, near Paris, on 23rd (24th?) of May 2010.
The redecoration is in celebration of 100th anniversary of the French Naval Air Arm, the 'Aeronavale'.

Mary Massa-Wilson wrote me with a request...
"My father, Tom Wilson (who is now 90), claims to have been on (one of) the first delivery flights of the Convair 240 to Australia. He was a civilian Technical rep from Hamilton Standard; he was sent along to be an advisor to the Australian crew. They set off from San Diego and picked him up in Montreal, then continued on to London, etc.
The first aircraft, flown by John Chapman, was named 'John Forrest'.
After 5 months of looking for some info, I got the flight log and found it has no info to prove he was on it...
The aircraft would have been a CV240 c/n 64."
That would be VH-TAQ -Webmaster

Above: This is the plane on its arrival to Australia. I got it from the National Archives of Australia.


"Photo from the book Challenge in the Skies, by Ian Sabey.
It was sent to me by a daughter of a crew member, Arthur Windover.
From left to right : Bill Kerr (Navigator), Alan Morton (Radio Operator), Captain Frank Fischer, Captain John Chapman, John Watkins (TAA Technical Superintendent), Arthur Windover (Airframe Engineer) and Harry Gordon (Power Plant Engineer), Jim McLeod (see below).
A famous journalist, Stanley Brogden, was also on board.
This is one of the things that my Dad mentioned!!
  Does anyone have this book? Could it hold information relating to my father, Tom Wilson?
Is anyone of this crew still alive?  Most would be in their 90s..."
Mary Wilson

Newspaper article of that time: HERE
[The above names are in corrected order as submitted to me by Gordon Reid, july 2010,: "Challenge in the Skies by Ian Sabey did publish a photo of the crew of the Convair 240 VH-TAQ, however it was not the photo that you show in your website. The caption under the photo in your website was taken from Challenge in the Skies but people have moved around in the photo you have shown; so they are not correctly identified in your website.
As you correctly say aviation journalist Stanley Brogden was also on board, as was a movie cameraman, so there was a film made of the ferry flight..."]
Mary wrote on this (april 2011): But I have the Log and if you look ..you will see that the crew  of 6 are Chapman, Fischer, Kerr, Morton, McLeod and Windover...no mention of Harry Gordon! Yes, Watkins was on board but he was not part of the crew. "
On 10Apr11 Mary wrote on the persons shown in the picture: "I have the Log and if you look you will see that the crew  of 6 are Chapman, Fischer, Kerr, Morton, McLeod and Windover: no mention of Harry Gordon; and yes, Watkins was on board but he was not part of the crew, So who is the 7th person in the photo?" Mary soon followed this up by "I received a personal copy of that photo from a relative of the crew and that last man has ben identified as: Jim McLeod"

Mary researched this article and wrote: "I did see that article. That was the flight!
And I did get the crewnames!
Took me 3 months, but the log did not include the names of the passengers... Only the crew were listed. 
It said that the names of the 4 passengers were in 'The Manifest' and therefore did not have to be in the log!
That book mentioned that Stanley Brogden was on the flight. What is a Manifest and where could one find that?
I am convinced the aircraft concerned is a CV240, c/n 64. That would make it VH-TAQ, 'John Forrest'"

www.aussieairliners.org/convairr/vh-taq/vhtaq.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_CV-240_family
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_Australia_Airlines

After a long history CV240 c/n 64 became N295M, in my records, last seen 08Aug2005 at Daytona Beach.
Airliners.net " It has since been scrapped, at Daytona Beach,FL.

"Mary wrote me on 02Apr11:
"I found out many things about that 'round the world' flight, including the names of the Austalian crew of 6, the journalist Stanley Brogden, the Cinesound Cameraman- Mr. Thompson, J.Watkins of T.A.A....but no mention of Dad.
But on April 1, 2011 I wrote to the Hamilton Sunstrand PR and they sent me a clip from the Hamilton  Std. Company newspaper Prop Tips and there it was: 'Tommy Wilson of the service dept. landed at Melbourne, Australia...in a Consolidated Vultee Convair liner...was the first to be delivered to Trans Australian Airways'!
I finally found proof! Real proof!
Am sending for the film that was taken on that flight, with hopes that he will be in it.
I wanted you to know for all the help you gave me, thanks!"

And later in April 2011 Mary wrote:
"Hi Rudi, finally got the Cinesound film of the flight that I have been looking for, for years..
Found it in National Film and Sound Archive in Australia!
It was a film by Stanley Brogden about that flight which he was on in 1948. And guess what: Dad was in the movie!
So my father Thomas A. Wilson was on the flight of the first Convair, the 'John Forrest', to Australia in 1948. And now I can prove it ."

Arnold Begeman wrote me:
Recently, May 6th, I took some pictures at Edmonton.
Convair CV580(F) C-GNRL (c/n 375) of Nolinor Cargo looks in splendid shape. [C-GNRL Airliners.net}
And Lockheed C-GZCF was seen departing in the distance (montage by the Webmaster), it seems to have acquired Tanker code 490 now - it used to have a white/green livery and tankercode '90'.

Kit Robinson explained the change in Tanker Tailcode:
"Canada has had a three number system for their airtankers for some time now. It seems as Airspray was painting their aircraft that they decided to display the three number code.
All large Tankers, e.g. L-188's, Convair 580's and DC-6's, all start with the number 4 (e.g. Convairs 444, 445 - DC-6s 450 and L-188s 481, 490).
S-2 Firecats start with 5 (e.g. 564, 567).
Air Tractors (or S.E.A.T.S.) start with 6 (e.g. 677, 680).
But Conair only displays two numbers on their aircraft."

N.b. The green livery was that of Channel Express, the previous operator. In 2007 I saw it at Red Deer in the hangar for maintenance, still with the green tail.

Ron Cuskelly wrote me on the change of tanker Tailcode: "I received an email just the other day from an Air Spray Electra Captain and he told me that the codes were always in the 400 series, but initially they only painted the last two numbers on the aircraft. As tanker numbers increased they had to add the additional '4'.
More info here: www.adastron.com/lockheed/updates.htm "

David Schmitt sent me these images of Fairchild C-119G N5216R (c/n 10956), surviving at an abandoned museum outside Battle Mountain, Nevada.
David wrote me:
"Today (20May2010), while driving across northern Nevada, I saw a couple of airplanes at a small airport in Battle Mountain,NV. One was an F-111. The other was a Fairchild C-119.
I could not gain access to the plane, as it was inside a locked chain link fence."

David certainly had better weather then when I visited this location! See my 2008 report. I couldn't get inside the fence either.
This plane was controversial as to its identity: see my page on Battle Mountain's C-119.

See also the photos by Jesse Brinson and the 2017 update by Raymond Meyer: ownership of #137 still hard to trace...
In 2018 a new initiative got under way, for a move to Alaska - provided the paper trail can be cleared. See
my Photos by Friends & Guests #53.

John Olafson travelled south and sent me a nice update on the Palm Springs Air Museum C-47B Skytrain:

"I thought you might be interested in seeing N60154, now that it has been repainted at the Palm Springs Air Museum.
The volunteers did it last winter, outside at night, when the winds were calm.
I think you would agree that it looks a lot nicer than it did when it was still wearing the paint scheme of the Israeli Air Force!
A volunteer there told me that they had to go through some 'red tape' to be able to use the Bugs Bunny nose art, but finally, the Warner Brothers people granted permission. Note the small Elmer Fudd figure swinging from a parachute, still trying to catch his nemesis...

The DC-3 apparently needs a new engine and that is a huge stumbling block in the plans of the museum to offer rides in the aircraft.
Time will tell when they are able to do that. For the time being, it remains on static display outside.
They have added a 'paratrooper' inside and put up a plastic panel, barring entry to the cockpit.
There is still some Israeli sineage and lettering inside the cabin and I found that interesting.
Hopefully we see it next winter when we are there again and maybe it will be ready to take passengers..?"

See the page on my 2008 visit to the Palm Springs Air Museum.

Quite the modern end of interest in 'propliners' and bushplanes for me is the deHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter...
Dennis J. Fisher sent me this sunny image of DHC-6-300 C-FVEG (c/n 260); he wrote: "Thought of you when I saw this Twin Otter yesterday 06Apr10. It was at Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) for this new paint job.
41 years old and looking good!"

Owned by Osprey Wings of LaRonge, Sask. Registered to them 21Aug08, after overhaul by Rocky Mountain Aviation (Springbank, Alberta).

After the fatal crash on 04Oct76 (see Aviation Safety Network database), I was involved in elements of the accident investigation.
The legality of the Mali registration was doubtful, and was denied by the Mali authorities. There were also disputes over ownership, as one engine was 'on loan' from a previous owner.

The above image (copied from a slide) was taken by a colleague (probably in Nov75), and shows the aircraft with United Air Cargo (K) Ltd titles The aircraft first arrived in Abu Dhabi on 17Nov75 with these titles."

Terry added: "Have now got a slide scanner, and am slowly uploading some pictures at:-
www.abpic.co.uk
With over 3,000 to scan this will take a considerable time!"

The (K) in United Air Cargo (K) Ltd titles stand for 'Kenya' as United Air Cargo Kenya operated in the years 1975 and 1976. Douglas DC-7CF N2977 (c/n 45467) was leased from Ronald 'Ron' J. Clark.
Ron Clark also traded as Vanguard Airlines, Viscount Airways, Sky Trek, Lowery Airways.
The above data is from Aerotransport.org, which has Ron Clark also owning Go Transportation (1971-????), Go Air / Go Group (???? - 1986), Ron Clark Enterprises (???? - ????) and Jadepoint USA (1987 - ....) - all based Arizona,USA.
Besides aforementioned DC-7, Mr Clark leased out Viscount aircraft and jetliners such as Caravelle and DC-8.
Came across this advertisement on www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/-

Vito wrote: "Two photos of PT-BFU: the above at Rio-Jacarepaguá, after overhaul by Motortec. And below the was taken at at Rio-Santos Dumont; note this one with the Ford do Brasil colours.
I tried to found the exact dates of these images; the one taken at Rio Jacarepaguá (Wikipedia) was in 1980, but I lost a lot of my records and cannot find (exact) dates."

Jacques Hémet reacted to these images: "this DC-3 has the 'Maximiser' conversion, like F-BFGX at the time with Hémet Exploration: increased take off weight."

This DHC-4 / C-7 was offered for sale on the internet. There was no copyright with the photos, nor mention of the name of the photographer.

Best place on the Web for DHC-4 and DHC-5 airplanes is Wayne's website: www.dhc4and5.org